Writing on a Limb

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Friday, January 1, 2016

Hello and welcome to 2016, apparently. Time to round up the books I read this past year.In 2015, I finished
90 books, falling just short of my 100 book goal and breaking my three year streak. I'm almost content with the failure, however, if only because I didn't let
myself turn the past week into an insane reading marathon just in order to
reach this arbitrary goal. I had other things to accomplish, as well as books I
wanted to enjoy more slowly, and I allowed myself to be okay with it for once.
And hey, 90 books is still a lot! I even thought about lowering my reading goal for 2016, but apparently I’m still enough of
a stubborn overachiever that when Goodreads asked me for my goal, I typed 100 again. Small steps.

I did not even
come close to meeting my Off the Shelf Challenge, however, accomplishing a truly embarrassing
five out of fifty. It's disappointing... and dangerous given the overstuffed state of my bookshelves. Will 2016 finally be the year
that I manage to catch up on the books I own instead of being lured by newer ones at the library? Ermmm, probably
not, but I'm resolved to take a much more respectable run at it!

Some quick stats and favorites from my reading year:

- Audiobooks: 12- E-Books: 5- Traditional Ink
& Paper Books: 73

- Borrowed from the
library or friends: 74 (4 of which I then bought copies of for myself)- From my own shelves: 16 (and only 5 of those valid for the OTS Challenge, sigh)

-Non-Fiction: 24 (11 History, 5 Memoir, and 8 Psychology/Sociology/Instructional)- Fiction: 66 (with too many cross-overs to easily sort by genre, though the most popular was Fantasy/Magical Realism)

My Favorite Five Non-Fiction:

The Marshmallow Test by Walter MischelThe Art of Asking by Amanda PalmerThe Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo Nerd
Do Well by Simon Pegg on audioIs Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling on audio

My Favorite Fifteen Fiction: (Any fewer was just too hard)

Vicious by
V. E. Schwab Cress by Marissa MeyerStation
Eleven by Emily St. John MandelA
Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefanoLiesl & Po by Lauren OliverThe Gates by John ConnollyThe Walls Around Us by Nova Ren SumaThe Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister The Winner's Crime by Marie RutkoskiJackaby
by William RitterThe Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel AaronMore Happy Than Not by Adam SilveraIce Like Fire by Sara Raasch The Unbound by Victoria SchwabIn The Shadows by Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo

Monday, June 29, 2015

Me Last Night: It’s good to be
blogging again. I can’t believe the post I just put up (about the craziness of
my three jobs getting in the way of writing) was only my third for this year.
That’s kind of embarrassing. I mean, look at how much I used to post back in
the early years.

"I'm actually looking
forward to having more time to blog and write once we're settled, since I'll be
leaving my three jobs behind and searching for just one."

*bursts into laughter that is only a tiny bit bitter*

Speaking of not learning from past missteps, anyone want to join me for Camp NaNoWriMo this July? Just kidding with the negativity; you know I love me some NaNoWriMo (whether or not it's good for my project, eh), AND most importantly, the camp version allows you to choose your own goal, so I can set mine low enough that I don't sacrifice anything for word count. I'm thinking 20,000 words (because I was aiming for 500 words a day, but then 20K sounded nicer and rounder than 15.5K. I am already falling into my own trap, methinks).

Saturday, June 27, 2015

I haven’t been around
here since winter – gah, apologies! – mostly because I took on a third part-time job back in
February that just might have pushed my schedule from really busy to utterly overwhelming. It was
one of those opportunities that I gradually fell into even while
telling myself that I didn’t have the time. The position involves helping high
school seniors successfully transition to community college, which is right up my alley and connected so well to what I was already doing that I found it impossible to say no. All three of my jobs
allow me to spend time with some fantastic people… just not with my characters,
my critique partners, or you, my lovely internet friends. I’ve been fighting for months to
find some sort of balance with all the elements of my life, and pondering just
where my writing fits after going months without penning more than a
few paragraphs.

I am not one of those authors
whose impulse to write is always insistent and all-consuming. I could never
give up writing entirely, but I can easily go a few weeks or a few months without
writing and feel fine (other than the undercurrent of guilt, anyway).My hands do not start grabbing pens on their
own volition, my characters do not stage a coup and take over my brain. My
creative world just takes a nap, or finds other means of expression, and I have
to work to wake it up again when I return to the page.

Until recently, I haven’t had the
energy, ability, or impetus to wake it up. My insane school year schedule doesn’t
leave me with much time at all to write. I can steal some free minutes here and
there, but at those times I usually feel too exhausted or frenzied to craft
anything creative. I read instead, or try to catch up on work or sleep, or gaze out at our jungle of a yard and imagine myself doing something to tame it.

I also enjoy most of my time at
work, however, so there isn’t that burning need to escape the daily grind that motivates
some writers to give up their early morning or late night hours in the pursuit
of publication. (Not that anything could ever, ever, ever motivate me to wake up before dawn like some writers, but you get the point. I used to wield my night owl powers for writing at least.) I find a great deal of satisfaction in my day jobs, so that even
if I won the publication lottery, or the literal lottery for that matter, I
think I would still want to hold on to one or more of them. (Although, okay, if
I win the actual lottery, I reserve the right to spend half of the year on my
dream New Zealand horse farm/puppy playground/sports and lawn games arena/writing
retreat staffed with a personal chef and someone who knows anything about
horses.) There are still many reasons I would love to be published some day, but that career change escapism is no longer one of them.

I definitely realize that having three
reasonably enjoyable and meaningful jobs is a fortunate problem to have in the
current climate, so I’m not trying to complain, or to claim that it’s
impossible to write unless you’re living in a garret with a steady supply of
free time and misery. It just means I have to fight for time and seek out other
sources of motivation.

All of this could have turned into my retirement from writing, but I promise it’s not! During the summer
two of my jobs blessedly slow down a little, so I’ve finally had a little time these
past few weeks to breathe and plan. I'm finding (to my relief) that I’m just as committed to
writing as ever. I've accomplished a good deal of brainstorming and drafting this week, and it feels fantastic. It feels like a new pattern and balance to my life. It feels like momentum.

What keeps me going even when it seems more logical to let writing go?

~ The fact that this world and its
characters have lived in my head for years now, and I've put parts of their story on
the page in multiple imperfect iterations, and yet I’m still not tired of them in
the slightest. (Though they might be tired of me for making them wait so long for
a final product.)

~ The fact that I love the writing
community and have always wanted to be part of the world of books that has shaped
(and continues to shape) who I am.

~ The fact that I want to prove to
myself that I can tackle this puzzle of a novel and figure out how to solve it.
I like to stretch my brain, and I don’t like failing or giving up. Even though plotting and fantasy world-building are seriously so freaking exhausting, guys. HOW DO ALL OF THESE AUTHORS DO IT?

~ The fact that I have some wonderful
(and wonderfully persistent) people in my life who have been supportive of my
writing dreams for a while now, who may hurl kumquats and pineapples at me if they don't get to read a full manuscript from me in the reasonably near future.

~ The fact that my writing time
never feels wasted, even now when I have so little time to spare.

I don’t know yet how I’ll find a
better balance come October, when work gears up full throttle again. I just
know I have this summer to carve out as many vacations as possible into my
fantasy world and travel as far as I can with my endlessly patient, frequently stranded characters.

How goes your writing life? Can anyone tell me the secret to finding that life balance? Or crafting an effective plot? Either one, I'm not picky.